By Amy Samin

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv soundly defeated Barak Netanya 108 – 75 and will face Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem in the League Cup Final on Thursday.
Pargo was game MVP with 12 points and 12 assists; Sofo contributed 17 points.

In their semi-final contest against Netanya, Maccabi opened with Doron Perkins, Guy Pnini, Lior Eliyahu, Richard Hendrix and Jeremy Pargo.
The early minutes of the first quarter saw the lead trading off between the two teams and included points by Pargo, Hendrix and a coast-to-coast by Eliyahu.
Netanya tied the score twice, but points by Eidson followed by an assist to Pnini for three put Maccabi on top, 16 – 12 at the halfway mark.
Sofoklis Schortsanitis came into the game and immediately made his presence felt on defense.
A bomb from downtown by Pnini made it 23 – 18, kicking off what would turn out to be a 13 – 0 scoring run for Maccabi that featured three pointers by Pnini and David Blu and two dunks by Sofo.
The first quarter ended with Maccabi leading 33 – 19.

Several quick baskets by Maccabi at the start of the second quarter, including three pointers from Blu and Eidson, put Maccabi up by twenty, 39 – 19.
Maccabi’s defense maintained a choke hold on Netanya whose first points of the period didn’t come until three and a half minutes had elapsed and which ended a cumulative 21 – 1 scoring run for Maccabi.
Netanya made up for it in part with a 12 – 0 run of their own, closing the gap to ten before two straight treys from Pargo at the top of the arc gave Maccabi some breathing room, 47 – 31 with less than three minutes left in the half.
The period ended with that lead more or less intact, 50 – 35 Maccabi.

Seven points by Sofo and a dunk by Eliyahu had Maccabi up by twenty after three and a half minutes of play in the third quarter.
Pargo executed an Eliyahu-like one-handed shot after a drive into the paint and Sofo scored four straight from the charity stripe, giving Maccabi a 69 – 46 lead by mid-period.
Maccabi continued to play smart on offense, with Hendrix scoring off the glass and Perkins generously passing up a wide-open long shot in favor of an assist to Pnini in the paint.
A three pointer from Blu in the right corner was followed by a steal plus layup by Eidson, and even excellent efforts by Netanya’s Adrian Banks weren’t enough to make much difference; the period ended with Maccabi leading 81 – 56.

Maccabi continued to dominate in the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to team captain Derrick Sharp, who scored a trio of threes plus one from the line to make up more than a third of the team’s total points in the period.
Burstein, Eidson, Elishay Kadir and Yaniv Green also lit up the scoreboard in the final quarter, including a hook shot at the buzzer by Green.
A solid overall team effort gave Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv a 108 – 75 victory over Barak Netanya.

Box Scores

Maccabi: Schortsanitis 17 points; Pargo 12 points, 12 assists, 3 steals; Eliyahu 12 points, 4 blocks; Eidson 12 points; Sharp, Pnini and Hendrix 10 points each; Blu 9 points; Green 8 points; Burstein 6 points; Kadir 2 points.

Netanya: Travis 22 points; Banks 18 points; Ichaki 14 points.

“We need to keep up the intensity and not ease back; we need to learn not to waste opportunities,” said Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv head coach David Blatt, adding, “This game against Netanya was more competitive than the previous one against Rishon.”
The coach also discussed the Euroleague, which gets underway next week: “It’s going to be very close this season.
We’re a little bit behind some of the other teams in the Euroleague, comparatively, but we’re improving.”

Game MVP Jeremy Pargo said after the victory, “We’re happy to have the win.
We did a good job, and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
Sofoklis Schortsanitis added, “They’re a good team, but our defense played well.”

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